Girls roll to third-straight Demon Relays title

By Travis J. Brown, Journal Sports Editor | Apr 05, 2013

Photo by: Travis J. BrownWhile competing in the 400-meter dash at Thursday's Demon Relays, Washington's Stephanie Fishback, Washington's Mariah Reighard and Fairfield's Abby Melcher pass in front of cups stuck in the fence on the backstretch of the Case Field track to read "Run Down Cancer." Reighard came from behind to edge her teammate at the finish line for first place in the race.

Washington left no doubt which school had the best girls’ track and field team at Thursday’s home Demon Relays. The Demons dominated, amassing 220.5 team points and finishing 68.5 points ahead of second-place Fairfield.

“That was awesome. Amazing,” junior sprinter Dema Giardino said after the team scores had been announced following the meet. “I don’t even think we came out here knowing we would get that many points, let alone first place. Beating Fairfield was our main priority, and we did that, which was awesome.”

Most impressive in Washington’s dominating performance was that the Demons won six of the eight relay races and finished second in the other two. Washington cruised to victory in several of those relays — Washington’s 4x400 relay team of Mariah Reighard, Stephanie Fishback, Sammy Ellingson and Morgan Kimball ran a time of 4:19.10 to win night’s final race by over 14 seconds and the quartet of Kaitlin Buchholz, Emma Wood, Ellingson and Lauren Kimball ran a time of 1:11.54 to win the Curt Jensen Memorial Shuttle Hurdle Relay by over two seconds.

But the Demons’ most thrilling win of the night came in the 4x100 relay, where Giardino held off Fairfield anchor Sydney Howard — the defending Class 3A state champion in the 100- and 200-meter dashes — to win the race.

“It was just an awesome race,” Washington head coach Stefanie Tschantz said. “It was the most exciting race of the night.”

Sophomore Macy Marek ran a split of 12.8 seconds in the opening leg to give the Demons a quick lead in the race, and then senior Natalee Enfield and junior Rachael Hall maintained the lead. Giardino had a 10-meter lead when she got the baton from Hall.

“The lead was amazing,” Giardino said. “Stefanie told us that we needed a head start if we wanted to beat Fairfield. We’d never beaten Fairfield in the 4x100 before. They did really well with giving me a head start, and at the end I just knew I had to finish it for them.”

But with a state champion sprinter lurking behind you, that’s easier said than done.

“It was really nerve-racking, especially since earlier I got completely killed by [Howard] in the open 100,” Giardino said. “I heard over the announcements, ‘State champion coming behind Giardino.’ I just knew that the girls wanted it as much as I wanted it, so I just kept going until the end.”

Giardino was able to edge Howard by eight-hundredths of a second for the victory. The Demons recorded a time of 53.34 seconds in the race.

Washington’s sprint medley relay team of Maddie Bohr, Enfield, Grace Redlinger and Addison Gaal won in 2:02.97, and the distance medley squad of Amber Salow, Gaal, Mackenzie Knutson and Lauren Kimball took first place in 4:39.00. The quartet of Joni Erwin, McKayla Miller, Emma Stout and Dylann Schluetter easily won the throwers’ 4x100 in 1:00.86.

The quartet of Marek, Hall, Enfield and Ellingson took second place in the 4x200 in 1:53.76, and the 4x800 relay team of Aubrey Zimmer, Reighard, Jasmine Mares and Beth Dillon was runner-up in 10:49.88.

Washington didn’t just have success in the relays. The Demons scored two athletes in every open event except the 3,000-meter run.

“We pretty much doubled up in everything,” Tschantz said.

Ellingson cleared 5 feet, 2.5 inches — a new meet record — to win the high jump competition.

“That will put her right at the Drake [Relays] cutoff,” Tschantz said. “Some years it’s 5-2 and some years it’s 5-3. So she’s sitting right there.”

Lauren Kimball cleared 4 feet, 8 inches to tie for fifth place in the high jump.

Fishback returned from a one-year hiatus from the long jump to win the event with a leap of 15 feet, 7 inches. Gaal took third place with a jump of 14 feet, 10.5 inches.

“We know what she can do,” Tschantz said of Fishback. “She slipped and fell on a board at conference in Keokuk two years ago, and she’s been scared of it ever since. She finally warmed up to it again and started approaching it. She just nailed it.”

Erwin won the shot put competition with a throw of 35 feet, 2 inches, and Miller was second with a toss of 31 feet, 6.25 inches. Erwin took second place in the discus with a throw of 97 feet, 3 inches, and Buchholz, who was throwing the discus for the first time since junior high, finished third with a toss of 91 feet, 9.5 inches.

“She’d done it in seventh and eighth grade, but hadn’t touched it since,” Tshantz said of Buchholz. Then she came out and practiced a couple of times and threw 91 feet, 9½ inches and got third place. There’s a lot of potential there.”

Buchholz, one of eight seniors for Washington, had a big night on Senior Night. Besides taking third place in the discus, she won the 100-meter hurdles in 17.64 seconds and the 400-meter hurdles in 1:11.98. She has also been a member of four straight shuttle hurdle teams that won the Curt Jensen Memorial race.

Wood was runner-up to Buchholz in the 100-meter hurdles in 18.32 seconds, and Lauren Kimball took second place to Buchholz in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:13.84.

Reighard, another senior, came from behind to edge Fishback at the finish line in the 400-meter dash. Reighard won the race in 1:03.32, three-hundredths of a second ahead of her teammate.

Fishback also finished second in the 200-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 27.99 seconds. Marek was third in 28.64 seconds.

Marek took second place behind Howard in the 100-meter dash, crossing the finish line in 13.70 seconds. Giardino, who ran a 12.9-second split in the anchor leg of the 4x100 relay, finished third in 14.09 seconds.

Junior Stephanie Loy took fourth place in the 3,000-meter run in 13:08.45, and she finished fifth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:57.96. Mares came in sixth in the 1,500-meter run in 5:58.24. Freshman Aubrey Zimmer placed fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:39.85, and Morgan Kimball was sixth in 2:40.26.

All in all, Tschantz, who is in her first year as head coach of the Demons, was very encouraged by her team’s performance at its home meet.

“Everybody came out and ran hard and performed well for us,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for a better meet tonight. It was perfect.”